Almirante Latorre-class battleship
|Class before= |Class after=None |Cost= |Built range=1911–24 |In commission range=1915–59 |Total ships completed=2, 1 as aircraft carrier |Total ships scrapped=1 |Total ships lost=1 }} |module2= standard and |Ship length= 661 feet (201 m) overall |Ship beam= |Ship draught= |Ship propulsion=21 Coal and oil-fired Yarrow boilers Low pressure Parsons and High pressure Brown-Curtis/Parsons steam turbines |Ship speed= |Ship range= at |Ship complement=1,167 (during the First World War) |Ship power= |Ship armament=10 × 14 inch (355 mm)/45 caliber BL guns 16 × guns 2 × anti-aircraft guns 4 × 3-pounder guns 4 × torpedo tubes (submerged) |Ship armor=Belt: Deck: Barbette: Turret face: Conning tower: }} }} The Almirante Latorre class consisted of two super-dreadnought battleships designed by the British company Armstrong Whitworth for the Chilean Navy. Only one, , was finished as a battleship; the other, , was converted to an aircraft carrier. They were purchased by the Royal Navy prior to completion for use in the First World War and renamed and . Under their Chilean names, they honored the Admirals (Almirante''s) Juan José Latorre and Thomas Cochrane. They took their British names from the dominion and a traditional ship name in the Royal Navy. At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, Chile was engaged in an intense naval competition with its southern neighbor Argentina. When Argentina responded to Brazil's order for two dreadnoughts with two of its own, Chile felt that it also needed to respond. Despite a strong push from the American government for the contracts, an order for two battleships was placed with the British, probably due to Chile's traditionally strong ties with the United Kingdom. ''Almirante Latorre, which was closer to completion than her sister, was commissioned into British service as Canada in October 1915. She spent her wartime service with the Grand Fleet, seeing action in the Battle of Jutland. After the war, she was put into reserve before being sold back to Chile in 1920 as Almirante Latorre. The crew of the battleship instigated a naval mutiny in 1931. After a major refit in 1937, she patrolled Chile's coast during the Second World War. She was scrapped in 1959. After Almirante Cochrane was purchased by the British, construction on the ship was halted until 1918, when it was decided to convert her into an aircraft carrier. After numerous delays, she was commissioned into the Royal Navy in February 1924. She served in the Mediterranean Fleet and on the China Station in the inter-war period, and operated in the Atlantic and Mediterranean during the Second World War before being sunk in August 1942 during Operation Pedestal. Background Argentine–Chilean boundary dispute Conflicting Argentine and Chilean claims to Patagonia, a geographic region in the southernmost portion of South America, went back to the 1840s. In 1872 and again in 1878, Chilean warships seized merchant ships which had been licensed to operate in the disputed area by Argentina. An Argentine warship did the same to an American ship in 1877. These actions nearly led to war in November 1878, when Argentina dispatched a squadron of warships to the Santa Cruz River. Chile responded with the same, and war was only avoided by a hastily signed treaty. Both countries were distracted in the next few years by Argentina's internal military operations against the indigenous population and Chile's War of the Pacific (Guerra del Pacífico) against Bolivia and Peru, but by 1890 a full-fledged naval arms race was underway between the two.Scheina, Naval History, 45–46.Garrett, "Beagle Channel," 85–87. Both sides began ordering warships from the United Kingdom. Chile added £3,129,500 in 1887 to the budget for its fleet, which was centered around two 1870s central battery ironclads, and , and a protected cruiser. The battleship , two protected cruisers, and two torpedo boats were ordered, and their keels were laid in 1890. Argentina responded soon after with an order for two battleships, and . The race continued through the 1890s, even after the Chilean Civil War of 1891. The two countries alternated cruiser orders between 1890 and 1895, each ship marking a small increase in capabilities from the ship previous. The Argentines upped the ante in July 1895 by buying an armored cruiser, , from Italy. Chile responded by ordering its own armored cruiser, , and six torpedo boats; Argentina quickly ordered another cruiser from Italy and later bought two more.Scheina, Naval History, 45–49, 297–298, 347. The race abated somewhat after a boundary dispute in the Puna de Atacama region was successfully mediated by the American ambassador to Argentina, William Paine Lord, in 1899, but more ships were ordered by Argentina and Chile in 1901. Argentina ordered two armored cruisers from Italy, and Chile replied with orders for two pre-dreadnought battleships. Argentina continued by signing letters of intent with Italian engineering company Ansaldo in May 1901 to buy two larger battleships.Scheina, Naval History, 49–50. The growing dispute disturbed the British government, who had extensive commercial interests in the area. Through their minister to Chile, they mediated negotiations between the two countries. These were successfully concluded on 28 May 1902 with three pacts, Pactos de Mayo. The third limited the naval armaments of both countries; both were barred from acquiring any further warships for five years without giving the other an eighteen months' advance notice. The United Kingdom purchased the two Chilean battleships, while Japan took over the order for the two Argentine armored cruisers; the two Argentine battleships were never ordered. Two Argentine cruisers and Chile's Capitán Prat were demilitarized.Scheina, Naval History, 49–52. Meanwhile, beginning in the late 1880s, Brazil's navy fell into obsolescence after an 1889 revolution, which deposed Emperor Dom Pedro II, and a 1893 civil war.Topliss, "The Brazilian Dreadnoughts," 240.Livermore, "Battleship Diplomacy," 32. By the turn of the 20th century it was lagging behind the Chilean and Argentine navies in quality and total tonnage, , Argentina's , and Brazil's .}} despite Brazil having nearly three times the population of Argentina and almost five times the population of Chile.Scheina, "Brazil," 403. Dreadnought arms race By 1904, Brazil—the largest country in South America in both size and population—began to seriously consider upgrading its navy, which had fallen to third in total tonnage. Soaring demand for coffee and rubber brought an influx of tax revenue,Sondhaus, Naval Warfare, 216. used to begin a large naval building plan. The centerpiece of the new navy would be two dreadnoughts built by the United Kingdom. The order for these powerful ships, designed to carry the heaviest armament in the world at the time,"Germany may buy English warships," The New York Times, 1 August 1908, C8. shocked Argentina and Chile,Scheina, "Argentina," 400. causing them to cancel the 1902 armament-limiting pact with immediate effect. Alarmed, the American ambassador to Brazil sent a cablegram to his Department of State, warning them of the destabilizing effects that would occur if the situation devolved into a full naval arms race.Livermore, "Battleship Diplomacy," 32–33. Argentina and other countries attempted to avert a full-scale naval arms race by offering to purchase one of the two dreadnoughts. Brazil refused Argentina's offer. After further tensions over the River Plate (Río de la Plata, literally "Silver River") area and inflammatory newspaper editorials favoring dreadnoughts, Argentina went ahead with a massive naval building plan. After a drawn-out bidding process among fifteen shipyards from the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, and Italy, Argentina ordered two dreadnoughts with an option for a third from the United States. They also ordered twelve destroyers from three nations in Europe. With its major rival acquiring so many modern vessels, Chile wanted to respond as early as February 1906,Hough, The Big Battleship, 23. but the country's naval plans were delayed by a financial depression in 1907 brought on by a drastic fall in the nitrate market and by a major earthquake in 1908.Livermore, "Battleship Diplomacy," 33–41. Bidding, construction, and sale to the British On 6 July 1910, the National Congress of Chile passed a bill allocating £400,000 pounds sterling to the navy for six destroyers, two submarines, and two large battleships, later named and ."Acorazado Almirante Latorre," Armada de Chile, archived 8 June 2008. Even before the decision was officially announced, the United Kingdom was widely viewed as the only country with a chance of landing the contract. The Chilean Navy had enjoyed a long-standing close relationship with its British counterpart, the Royal Navy, since the 1830s, when Chilean naval officers were given places on British ships to receive training and experience they could bring back to their country. This relationship had recently been cemented when a British naval mission was requested by Chile and sent in 1911.Scheina, Naval History, 138. Still, the United States made a push to have the orders placed in an American shipyard. The American government sent Henry Prather Fletcher to be the new minister to Chile in September 1910. Fletcher had successfully implemented President William Howard Taft's "Dollar Diplomacy" policy in China. He met with resistance, which he attributed to lingering sentiment from the 1891 ''Baltimore'' Crisis: "My advances in the matter have not been met with frankness or encouragement and I feel a spirit of covert opposition. Under a very polite and courteous exterior there still exists a feeling of soreness towards us."Quoted in Livermore, "Battleship Diplomacy," 41. The US naval attaché opined that, barring anything short of a revolution, the contracts would be given to the British. Indeed, the bidding process specified ships very close to the armament and armor mounted on recent British warships. Fletcher asked for an extension to the bidding process so that American shipbuilding firms could tailor proposals to these requirements, and this was granted. During this time, Germany announced plans to send the battlecruiser on a South American cruise. As the ship was "widely advertised as the fastest and most powerful warship then afloat," the United States and United Kingdom felt her presence might give German companies an advantage in potential armament contracts, so they sent ships of their own. The United States sent the new battleship on a ten-week excursion to Brazil and Chile, carrying the body of the recently deceased Chilean minister to the United States; the British responded with an armored cruiser squadron. Delaware s captain was ordered to give the Chileans full access to the vessel—the only exception being that he should not give full particulars of the new fire-control systemLivermore, "Battleship Diplomacy," 41–42.—in an attempt by the Navy Department "to aid the shipbuilding interests of the country States to make contracts for the building of men-of-war for foreign countries."Quoted in Livermore, "Battleship Diplomacy," 42. As a further incentive the U.S. indicated its willingness to provide a $25 million loan to support the purchase of the ship.Livermore, "Battleship Diplomacy," 42. In the event, the efforts made by the United States came to little. The final decision came down to a choice between the American and British tenders,Hough, The Big Battleship, 24. and with a loan from the Rothchilds, Chile awarded one battleship contract to the latter's Armstrong Whitworth on 25 July 1911. The design was drawn up by J.R. Perret, who had also designed Brazil's .Burt, British Battleships, 231. The United States still hoped that Chile would order American 14-inch/50 caliber guns for the battleship's main battery armament, but orders came only for coastal artillery. The second dreadnought was awarded to Armstrong in June 1912.Livermore, "Battleship Diplomacy," 42–43. Six destroyers were ordered in 1911 from J. Samuel White to accompany the new dreadnoughts.English, Armed Forces, 146. Before construction began, the Almirante Latorre design was enlarged to mount sixteen 6-inch (152 mm) rather than twenty-two 4.7-inch (119 mm) guns. This increased the displacement by , to , the draft by , to , and made the ship a quarter-knot slower, to 22.75 knots.Parkes, British Battleships, 605. Officially ordered on 2 November 1911 and laid down less than a month later on 27 November,Scheina, Naval History, 322.Scheina, "Chile," 408. the first dreadnought became the largest ship that Armstrong had built.Gill, "Professional Notes," 493. The other was ordered on 29 July 1912 and laid down on 22 January 1913, delayed by Rio de Janiero occupying the slipway in which she would be built. The New York Tribune (2 November 1913) and Proceedings (May and June 1914) reported that Greece had reached an accord to purchase the first battleship counterbalance the Ottoman Empire's acquisition of Rio de Janeiro from Brazil,"Turkey Threatened with Another War," New York Tribune, 2 November 1913, 12.Gill, "Professional Notes," 934. but despite a developing sentiment within Chile to sell one or both of the dreadnoughts, no deal was made.Livermore, "Battleship Diplomacy," 45.Kaldis, "Background for Conflict," D1135. Almirante Latorre was launched first, on 27 November 1913,Burt, British Battleships, 240.Gill, "Professional Notes," 193. in an elaborate ceremony that was attended by various dignitaries and presided over by Chile's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Agustín Edwards Mac Clure. The battleship was christened by the ambassador's wife, Olga Budge de Edwards, and weighed at the time.Parkes, British Battleships, 607. After the First World War broke out in Europe, work on Almirante Latorre was halted in August 1914, and she was formally purchased on 9 September after the British recommended it four days earlier.Burt, British Battleships, 231, 240."British Navy Gains," The New York Times, 7 December 1918, 14. Almirante Latorre was not forcibly seized like the Ottoman and (ex-''Rio de Janeiro''), two other ships being built for a foreign navy, because of Chile's "friendly neutral" status with the United Kingdom. The former Chilean ship was completed on 30 September 1915, and commissioned into the Royal Navy on 15 October. Work on the other ship, Almirante Cochrane, was halted after the outbreak of war. The British purchased her on 28 February 1918 to be converted to an aircraft carrier, as the partially completed ship was the only available large and fast hull capable of being modified into a full flush-deck carrier. Low priority and quarrels with shipyard workers slowed completion of the ship.Preston, "Great Britain," 70. Service histories Almirante Latorre was renamed HMS Canada and slightly modified for British service. The ship completed fitting-out on 20 September 1915, and was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 15 October. She initially served with the 4th Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet, and saw action in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May and 1 June 1916. She fired 42 rounds from her 14-inch guns and 109 6-inch shells during the battle, and suffered no hits or casualties. Canada was transferred to the 1st Battle Squadron on 12 June 1916, received further modifications in 1917 and 1918, and was put into reserve in March 1919. After the end of the war in Europe, Chile began to seek additional ships to bolster its fleet, and the United Kingdom eagerly offered many of its surplus warships. This action worried the nations of South America, who feared that a Chilean attempt to regain the title of "the first naval power in South America"Graser Schornstheimer, "Chile as a Naval Power," The New York Times, 22 August 1920, X10. would destabilize the region and start another naval arms race.Livermore, "Battleship Diplomacy," 48. Chile asked for Almirante Cochrane in addition to Canada, but would not purchase the ship unless she was reconstructed into the original battleship configuration. The British halted work on the incomplete ship while seriously considering the offer in October 1919. But because of the increased cost of reconverting her—£2.5 million, compared to a potential profit of £1.5 million from selling her—and a desire to test the aircraft carrier concept and especially the viability of island superstructures, the British kept and completed the ship, as .Brown, "HMS Eagle," 251. In April 1920, Chile only bought Canada and four destroyers, all of which had been ordered by Chile prior to the war's outbreak and requisitioned by the British for the war. Planned replacements for Almirante Cochrane included the two remaining s, but a leak to the press of the secret negotiations to acquire them caused an uproar. The most visible dissension came from a block of officers in the navy who publicly opposed any possible purchase and instead promoted a "New Navy" which would acquire submarines and airplanes. They argued that these weapons would cost less and give the country, and its lengthy coastline, better protection from external threats. The ships were not bought for reasons of cost, but neither were the airplanes its supporters had been hoping for.Somervell, "Naval Affairs," 393–394. ''Almirante Latorre'' in Chilean service Canada was renamed Almirante Latorre once again and formally handed over to the Chilean government on 27 November 1920. She departed Plymouth the same day with two of the destroyers,"Chile's War Fleet Sails," The New York Times, 28 November 1920, 12. and they arrived in Chile on 20 February 1921, where they were welcomed by Chile's president, Arturo Alessandri. Almirante Latorre was made the flagship of the navy. The dreadnought was frequently used by Alessandri for various functions, including as transport to Vallenar after a 1922 earthquake,"More Earthquakes Hit Northern Chile," The New York Times, 16 November 1922, 3. and to Talcahuano for the grand opening of a new naval drydock in 1924. In 1925, with the fall of the January Junta, the ship hosted Alessandri after his return from exile. In September, the last month of his term, Alessandri received the United Kingdom's Edward, Prince of Wales, on board the battleship.Somervell, "Naval Affairs," 393–394. Almirante Latorre was sent to the United Kingdom for a modernization at the Devonport Dockyard in 1929. It lasted for quite some time; she left for Valparaíso nearly two years later, on 5 March 1931, and arrived on 12 April.Whitley, Battleships, 33. Not long after she returned, crewmembers aboard Almirante Latorre instigated a major mutiny. The revolt was a result of the country's economic woes in the midst of the Great Depression and a recent pay cut. Most of the navy's ships joined Almirante Latorre in the mutiny, but they surrendered five days after it began when an air strike was mounted by government forces. Almirante Latorre ended up in the Bay of Tongoy with .Scheina, Naval History, 112–114.Scheina, Latin America's Wars, 76.Sater, "The Abortive Kronstadt," 240–253. With Chile still in the midst of the depression, Almirante Latorre was deactivated at Talcahuano in 1933 to lessen government expenditures,"Chile Lays Up All Battleships in Drastic Economy Measure," The New York Times, 19 January 1933, 7. and only a caretaker crew was assigned to tend to the mothballed ship into the mid-1930s.Scheina, Naval History, 86, 359. Soon after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States approached Chile with the aim of purchasing Almirante Latorre, two destroyers, and a submarine tender to bolster the United States Navy, but the offer was declined.Scheina, Naval History, 164.English, Armed Forces, 149. Almirante Latorre was used during the Second World War for Chilean neutrality patrols. She remained active until 1951, when an accident in the ship's engine room killed three crewmen. Moored at Talcahuano, the battleship became a storage facility for fuel oil. She was decommissioned in October 1958, and was sold in February 1959 to be broken up for scrap in Japan. The old dreadnought was taken under tow by the tug Cambrian Salvos on 29 May 1959, and reached Yokohama, Japan, at the end of August,"Chilean Warship in Japan," The New York Times, 30 August 1959, S13. though the scrapping process did not begin immediately on arrival. ''Almirante Cochrane''/''Eagle'' in British service Eagle was used for trials throughout 1920. As the concept of aircraft carriers was still very new, the lessons learned were incorporated in a 1921–23 refit. Her official sea trials were conducted in September 1923, and she was commissioned on 26 February 1924. The new ship was sent to the Mediterranean Fleet in June, and alternated between refits in the United Kingdom (1926, 1929) and the Mediterranean until 1931, when Eagle was sent to show the flag on a South American cruise. Between her major refits in 1931–32 and 1936, Eagle was sent to the China Station before rotating back to the Mediterranean. After 1936, she was sent back to the Far East, and was there when the Second World War broke out in September 1939. For the next seven months, Eagle was used for anti-raider patrols, but when one of her own aircraft bombs exploded on board in March 1940, the carrier was forced to sail to Singapore for repairs. Soon after, Eagle was again moved to the Mediterranean, where she protected convoys until May 1941, when she was sent to Gibraltar. She spent the next several months in the South Atlantic, on guard against German raiders.Brown, "HMS Eagle," 251–265. In September, a major fire severely damaged Eagle, so she was sent back to the United Kingdom. The refit lasted from October 1941 to February 1942, and she was quickly sent to reinforce Force H. She was employed to ferry fighters to Malta in attempts to keep the besieged island under British control. As part of this duty, she was used to cover a convoy in August 1942; during the voyage, Eagle was sunk in four minutes by four torpedoes from the German submarine .Brown, "HMS Eagle," 265–271. Specifications :For specifications of Almirante Cochrane, see Almirante Latorre closely resembled the British , the major difference being that the Chilean ship was longer, had less forecastle but more quarterdeck, and had larger funnels along with an aft mast. The ship was standard and at full load. At overall, she was longer than the Iron Duke class, and she had a beam of and a mean draft of . The ship's main battery was composed of ten 14-inch/45 caliber guns mounted in five dual turrets. The arrangement was the same as for the Iron Duke class, with two turrets superfiring forward and a single turret amidships separated from the aft superfiring pair by superstructure and a mast. Built by the Elswick Ordnance Company, the guns were able to fire a shell at a muzzle velocity of 1507 ft/s (764 m/s) to a maximum range of . They were able to depress to and elevate to .Campbell, Naval Weapons, 379. Fourteen of these guns were manufactured, ten mounted on Almirante Latorre and four kept for use as spares. The latter were kept by the United Kingdom after the sale to Chile and scrapped in 1922.Burt, British Battleships, 231, 234. The secondary battery was originally composed of sixteen 6-inch Mark XI, two 3-inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft guns, four 3-pounders, and four submerged 21-inch torpedo tubes. The two 6-inch guns located farthest aft were removed in 1916, as they were affected by blast damage from the amidships 14-inch turret.Burt, British Battleships, 234. During the 1929 refit in the United Kingdom, four additional anti-aircraft guns were placed in the aft superstructure. The guns built for Almirante Cochrane were kept for potential later use on Almirante Latorre.Brown, "HMS Eagle," 249. Almirante Latorre was powered by steam turbines manufactured by Brown–Curtis and Parsons, which put out 37,000 shaft horsepower, and 21 Yarrow boilers. Together, these turned four propellers which drove the ship through the water at a maximum speed of . of coal and of oil could be carried, giving the ship a maximum theoretical range of at . The battleship's armor was composed of a belt, bulkheads, barbettes, turret faces, a turret roof, a conning tower, and decks. was designed, constructed, and completed before the other South American dreadnoughts, but was smaller and not as well-armed. Two later dreadnoughts, and , were planned to rectify this, but the former was sold to the Ottoman Empire amid falling government revenues, and the other was not laid down when the First World War broke out and all British shipbuilding for foreign countries was suspended.Vanterpool, "The Riachuelo," 140. |File:Rivadavia-class battleships.jpg|The were the second dreadnought class purchased by a South American country and the only ones to not be built by a British company. Ordered in response to the Minas Geraes class, they mounted the same-size main battery as the Brazilian ships (12-inch), but the Argentine ships were much larger and significantly better-armored.Scheina, "Argentina," 401.Scheina, "Brazil," 404. |File:Brassey's HMS Canada Plan (1915).jpg|''Almirante Latorre'' was the last South American dreadnought built, and was larger and better armed than her counterparts. The more efficient arrangement of the five 14-inch turrets, with all mounted on the centerline rather than en echelon, allowed the main battery to fire on a single broadside without damaging the ship.Whitley, Battleships, 20. }} Footnotes Endnotes References : Brown, David. "HMS Eagle." In Profile Warship, edited by Antony Preston, 249–272. Windsor, United Kingdom: Profile Publishing, 1973. . . : Burt, R. A. British Battleships of World War One. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1986. ISBN 0-87021-863-8. : Campbell, John. Naval Weapons of World War II. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1985. ISBN 0-87021-459-4. . : English, Adrian J. Armed Forces of Latin America. London: Jane's Publishing Inc., 1984. ISBN 0-7106-0321-5. . : Gardiner, Robert and Randal Gray, eds. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1906–1921. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1984. ISBN 0-87021-907-3. . : Garrett, James L. "The Beagle Channel Dispute: Confrontation and Negotiation in the Southern Cone." Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 27, no. 3 (1985): 81–109. . . . : Gill, C.C. "Professional Notes." Proceedings 40, no. 1 (1914): 186–272. . . : ———. "Professional Notes." Proceedings 40, no. 2 (1914): 476–607. : ———. "Professional Notes." Proceedings 40, no. 3 (1914): 835–947. : Hough, Richard. The Big Battleship. Cornwall, United Kingdom: Periscope Publishing, 2003. First published 1966 by Michael Joseph. ISBN 1-904381-14-6. . : Kaldis, William Peter. "Background for Conflict: Greece, Turkey, and the Aegean Islands, 1912–1914." The Journal of Modern History 51, no. 2 (1979): D1119–D1146. . . . : Parkes, Oscar. British Battleships. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1990. First published 1957 by Seeley Service. ISBN 1-55750-075-4. . : Preston, Antony. "Great Britain." In Gardiner and Gray, Conway's, 1–104. : Livermore, Seward W. "Battleship Diplomacy in South America: 1905–1925." The Journal of Modern History 16, no. 1 (1944): 31–44. . . . : Sater, William F. "The Abortive Kronstadt: The Chilean Naval Mutiny of 1931." The Hispanic American Historical Review 60, no. 2 (1980): 239–268. . . . : Scheina, Robert L. "Argentina." In Gardiner and Gray, Conway's, 400–403. : ———. "Brazil." In Gardiner and Gray, Conway's, 403–407. : ———. "Chile." In Gardiner and Gray, Conway's, 407–409. : ———. Latin America: A Naval History 1810–1987. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1987. ISBN 0-87021-295-8. . : ———. Latin America's Wars. Washington D.C.: Brassey's, 2003. ISBN 1-57488-452-2. . : Somervell, Philip. "Naval Affairs in Chilean Politics, 1910–1932." Journal of Latin American Studies 16, no. 2 (1984): 381–402. . . . : Topliss, David. "The Brazilian Dreadnoughts, 1904–1914." Warship International 25, no. 3 (1988): 240–289. . . : Vanterpool, Alan. "The Riachuleo." Warship International 6, no. 2 (1969): 140–141. : Whitley, M.J. Battleships of World War Two: An International Encyclopedia. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1998. ISBN 1-55750-184-X. . External links * Dreadnought Project – technical material on the weaponry and fire control for the ship Category:Battleship classes Almirante Latorre-class battleships